[Chrysalis]

What I see is many people trying to make windows 7 look like window s8 and I think why?

Aero is beautiful and takes advantage also of modern pc hardware.

Windows 8 desktop feels like back on windows 95.

What I want to do.

Have gradient colour on window border.
Option to make transparent (although I don't enable it usually on production machines)
Boxes round minimize, maximize and close buttons.
These buttons to glow when hovering over them.

Basically windows 7 style.

possible yes or no?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Chrysalis, on 02 November 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

What I see is many people trying to make windows 7 look like window s8 and I think why?

Aero is beautiful and takes advantage also of modern pc hardware.

Windows 8 desktop feels like back on windows 95.

What I want to do.

Have gradient colour on window border.
Option to make transparent (although I don't enable it usually on production machines)
Boxes round minimize, maximize and close buttons.
These buttons to glow when hovering over them.

Basically windows 7 style.

possible yes or no?

Why kill Aero? Good question. It was probably because that hipster Steven Sinofsky, who considers the 6-year old Aero to be Dated and Cheesy, felt like resurrecting the 90-year old Art Deco style.

Your wishlist is perfect and mirrors what just about everyone else is asking for. All those things you list ( plus a functional Start Menu ) should never have been allowed to be destroyed by those Windows Destroyers. It is a disgusting display of arrogance from those charlatans pretending to be Windows designers.

Can they be restored? Not as of now. There were some rumored 3rd party efforts to re-enable Aero ( glass ), but to my knowledge there is no hint of success yet. I believe it possible that Stardock might create a Windows Blinds type engine that should work okay. Even more likely will be a solution from Rainmeter who have some wicked theme possibilities.

Finally, I agree that making a Windows 8 theme for use on Windows XP-Vista-7 is ridiculous IMHO. But to each his own. At least it would only be optional, unlike what Microsoft has planned for all of us.

[vinifera]

actually its roots go back as year 2003
so its more like 9 years old

by time winblows 8 sits in homes, it will be 10 years

This post has been edited by vinifera: 02 November 2012 - 10:35 PM

[tomasz86]

Have you tried to apply any Windows 7 theme files to Windows 8? I've tried to apply the Classic Theme but the result is kind of confusing. There seem to be some differences in how .theme files are constructed between the two systems.

This post has been edited by tomasz86: 02 November 2012 - 11:48 PM

[MagicAndre1981]

I'm using the official RP Theme in the Win8 RTM, which is a bit better but without Aero Glass is still looks horrible.

[Chrysalis]

Basically I saved my win7 theme to a file and double clicked on it in windows 8 and it imported.

The result was the darkest colour was used as a static colour for window borders, and so everything looked horrid.

Its worth mentioning even windows XP had glowing buttons support as I remember been very happy I had a aero style theme on XP (without transparency). The design on windows 8 seems to be a serious regression.

I really hope someone makes an app where one can simply import windows 7 themes, I will say ahead of time I would pay/donate for such an app.

This combined with start is back could be enough for me to jump, but I need both not one or the other, I have got used to how well windows 7 looks now.

I assume windows 8 has kept the actual hardware acceleration (wddm)?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Background Information ...

Why We Murdered Aero: Rationalizing our Arrogance and Stupidity ( Sinofsky Official Destroying Windows Blog 2012-05-18 )

Windows 8 Release Preview: RIP, Aero (2003-2012) ( Thurrott 2012-05-19 )

Aero-Glass in Windows 8 RTM, by re-instating the Aero Source Codes ( MDL 2012-08-31 )

True Transpareny On Windows 8 RTM ( MSFN 2012-09-06 )

[maxXPsoft]

I use my themepack and I like results. Does give aero look on desktop
Notice the transparency
 desk.PNG (62.5K)
Number of downloads: 33

[Chrysalis]

aero is more than transparency, whats your comment on gradient colours and glowing buttons?